US plans ‘Act’ to check arms sales to China

AGENCIESJul 15, 2005, 12.56am IST

WASHINGTON: The US president would be required to monitor European arms sales to China, with the option of penalising those companies that sell materials detrimental to US security, under legislation the House of Representatives took up Wednesday.

The 'East Asia Security Act' is the latest of several congressional actions taken to discourage the EU from proceeding with proposals to lift an embargo on arms sale imposed after China's 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square student movement.

The House is expected to vote on the measure Thursday, with passage a near certainty. Less certain is whether the Senate will consider the bill. President George W. Bush has voiced his opposition to ending the embargo, saying it could change the balance of power between China and Taiwan, but his administration has not supported the legislative approach.

While aimed at Europe, the measure would require Bush to report annually on all companies that sell arms to China and on governments whose policies condone such sales. Companies and governments that sell arms to China would have to obtain export licenses and submit to congressional review procedures in order to obtain sensitive US weapons technology in the future.

House International Relations Committee chairman, Henry Hyde, a Republican, welcomed the EU's decision not to terminate the embargo for the time being, but said the EU needs to do more to close loopholes in the embargo that allowed arms sales to China to increase eightfold in the '01-03 period, to $540m.

"The implications of these transfers are uniformly negative for the security of US armed forces in East Asia for the defence of our friends and allies in the region," he said.

Hyde said the measure was not retroactive and was "not intended to be punitive; it's primary purpose is deterrence." The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, said the bill was meant to "persuade other countries that there will be severe consequences if they fail to respect the security interests of their most important ally, the United States of America."

In February, the House approved, by 411-3, a nonbinding resolution saying that the EU's proposal to lift the embargo and replace it with a code of conduct on arms sales is "inherently inconsistent with the concept of mutual security interests that lies at the heart of US laws for trans-Atlantic defence co-operation." It urged the EU to "reconsider this unwise course of action."